The Australian environment minister, Greg Hunt, has bombarded Ellen DeGeneres with tweets after she appealed to Australia to do more to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

Following news of the death of almost a quarter of the coral on the reef this year, DeGeneres, who plays the fish Dory in the 2003 film Finding Nemo and its upcoming sequel, Finding Dory, released a video message as part of a campaign called Remember the Reef.

“And, as you may remember – but Dory probably doesn’t – she’s a blue tang and has many other amazing species that live in the Great Barrier Reef with her,” she said. “It’s critical that we protect this amazing place and we’d like your help.”

In response, Hunt fired off a torrent of tweets on Wednesday, promoting the work the Australian government has done to protect the embattled world heritage site.

He began by thanking DeGeneres for her advocacy: “We all have a role & the Aust govt is doing more than ever to protect it.”

Hunt had begun each tweet beginning with a full stop, ensuring that his defence would be seen by his 29,000 followers, not just those who also followed DeGeneres.

Other users were keen to derail Hunt’s talking points about the Australian government’s protection of the reef, with one user sharing an image of him and his colleagues celebrating the removal of carbon pricing in 2014. Ever since, Australia’s carbon emissions have been increasing and Hunt himself acknowledges that climate change is the most significant threat facing the Great Barrier Reef.

Unusually warm water has caused 93% of the reefs along the 2,300km site to experience bleaching. In the northern most pristine part, scientists think half the coral might have died.

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The federal government has exerted considerable effort attempting to conceal or underplay the crisis.

Last month it was revealed that every reference to Australia, including a key chapter on the reef, was scrubbed from the final version of a major UN report on climate change after the Australian Department of Environment intervened, concerned that it would negatively impact tourism.

Australia was the only inhabited continent on the planet not mentioned in the published document.

Hunt’s point to DeGeneres that the reef had been removed from the Unesco watch list overlooks the fact that it is assessed as being in “poor” condition and “worsening”, according to the government authority GBRMPA and Unesco.